To be competitive can mean different things to different people. People would use this word to describe me and I agree with them. I am aggressive in many things, especially things I am passionate about. I accept that I’m competitive and am very proud of it. In my opinion, my competitiveness is the reason behind most of my successes. This quote from Tim Tebow describes me pretty well: “I am someone that is very competitive. When I’m on the field, I compete. When I’m practicing, when I’m in meetings. I’m a competitor in everything.”

The formal definition of competitive is, “inclined, desiring, or suited to compete” (Merriam-Webster). The first thing I think of when I hear competitive is sports. Sports is all about competitiveness. Realistically, someone who is in a sport is automatically labeled competitive because they compete to win. Last year during basketball season, we were playing in our first playoff game against Wadena. It was a great game and it ended up going into overtime. I knew I had to up my game and be more competitive because I knew that the other team was wearing out. We fought through the whole overtime period and the game ended up going into a second overtime. The second overtime went down to the wire. We ended up winning with a buzzer beater. The point of this story is the competitiveness required. It took everything to get the win. I had to be more competitive to outplay the other team and it paid off.

Competitiveness can be seen in different ways though, not just sports. Businesses compete against other businesses constantly. An example of this is gas stations. They compete for business with gas prices. Another example is auto parts stores. Owners will put up a store across the street from another store to steal business from them. Also, back in the day, humans competed for food and shelter. Competitiveness is in our nature. Most often, the most competitive people were the survivors. Humans aren’t the only competitive species. Animals are competitive too and their competitiveness is based more on survival. The world is competitive and I am happy that other people consider me this because I take it as a compliment.

Competitiveness is not just going through the motions. My definition for competitive is giving everything you’ve got one hundred percent of the time. Never giving up. It’s never quitting. It is heart. That is one thing I take pride in with my events. Even in a loss I know that I’ve given everything I have on the field or court. Knowing that makes it so the loss doesn’t hurt like a stab wound. By being a competitor, I think another responsibility of mine is holding my teammates accountable and also encouraging them. All my teammates know what they are going to get out of me. They know I’m not going to give up. In all of my sports, my hard work and competitiveness has paid off. I have gotten compliments about my competitiveness and that drives me to keep it going. I have created a reputation of it and I couldn’t be more proud.

My sports aren’t the only thing that I’m aggressive in. I take great pride in my grades also. But again, I’ve had to compete and work hard for them. My motivation is college. I compete for the best grades possible for scholarship opportunities and I want to be at least top ten in my class. Another reason I believe I’m ambitious in the classroom is because of my aggressiveness in my sports. Like I said, I have a reputation and I don’t want to slack off. My aggressiveness in the classroom is always justified when we do Kahoot games. Most of the time there is no prize for doing well in these things but my natural competitiveness drives me to try hard to finish on top.

One thing I have heard in my life time is that I am a “try hard.” I would get called that and it caused me to not answer questions in class and I wouldn’t try as hard as I could in my activities. I later realized that it wasn’t a bad thing and I regretted not trying. I know that I’m naturally competitive and it’s a good trait to have in my opinion.

Being competitive has driven me to success in my life and I will continue to compete to bring more successes. I am thankful for my competitive nature to lift me to new heights on and off the field or court. Competitiveness is human nature and people shouldn’t make fun of it or push it away. Instead, they should embrace it.

Works Cited

“Competitive.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster.

“Tim Tebow Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore.